meta: Japanisme

Whatever my own readings of the film, the 2017 'Ghost In The Shell' is still problematic in ways that are potentially a bad model for other live-action anime

'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' for the J-lit set; a show that has one great creative invention and then spends its entire runtime doing nothing of consequence with it

This riotous 19th-century memoir of a ne'er-do-well samurai's life and times, available in English, would lend itself wonderfully to an anime treatment

Ango Sakaguchi's classic story, a mix of 'farce, fable, and mystery' (and horror) is brought to life with outlandish style and color -- and always with one eye cocked towards its heart of darkness

What could have been a dreary slog through a predictable plotline is instead made sweet, sincere, and unexpectedly thoughtful

Of all the anime/manga projects to film as a Western live-action production, you could scarcely find a harder sell or a worse fit than 'Naruto'

Shouldn't a show that entertains the idea that Japan's mystical past is an integral part of its present-day world not be so ... well, mundane?

One of the very few shows that gets it all right: funny, dazzling, charming, thoughtful, and sporting a cast of characters that never fail to enlist our sympathy and fascination

Hayao Miyazaki's final bow as a director is a down note -- an aimless, shallow, and all-too-fictive biopic that never engages with the moral questions at the heart of its own story

Let's not shy away from calling this not only Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's greatest achievement, but one of the finest of all films, animated or not

The legacy of the bomb in Japanese history has been confronted endlessly in entertainment, but that shouldn't be the only way we confront it

A gem of a show that confronts what it means for Japan and the West to be curious about each other -- and also how 'moé' can be an actual theme and not just a fetish

Despite a meandering plotline, this mini-fantasia about one girl's spiritual powers is still worth the time